Earth Hour 2009 was from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. local time, March 28, 2009. Lights went out at tourism landmarks and homes across the globe. 88 countries and more than 4,000 cities joined Earth Hour 2009, ten times more cities than Earth Hour 2008 had (2008 saw 400 cities participate). One billion “votes” was the stated aim for Earth Hour 2009，in the context of the pivotal 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
2009年“地球一小时”活动为当地时间2009年3月28日晚上8时30分至晚上9时30分。熄灯由旅 游胜地和世界各地的居民共同参与。总共88个国家和4000多个城市参加了2009年“地球一小时”活 动，这是2008参加城市数量的10倍(2008年有400个城市参加）。在2009年联合国气候变化高峰会议召开的背景下，10亿的“投票”是2009年的“地球一小时”活动的目 的所在。
Among the participants in 2009 was, for the first time, the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The UN conservatively estimates that its participation will save $102 in energy.
2009年“地球一小时”的参与者里首次出现在了纽约市的联合 国总部,总部保守估计，通过参与这次活动，他们节约的能源差不 多价值102美元。
Before 2008, San Francisco had been running its own “Lights Out” program in October. In 2008 it was moved to March 29 to align with Australia’s Earth Hour. This also happened to be the year that Earth Hour became an international event and San Francisco was asked to be a partner city in Earth Hour. Rather than have a competing event, San Francisco decided to support Earth Hour and all Lights Out efforts have now moved to supporting the international Earth Hour event. Since Earth Hour for 2008 was on a Saturday, many high schools in the Greater Toronto Area participated by turning off half the lights in classrooms during the last hour of school on Friday, March 28, 2008. Although the tagline of Earth Hour 2008 was officially, “See the difference you can make，” the official radio advertisement ended with the tagline, “Dark city, bright idea.”
早在2008年以前，旧金山就已经在10月实行过“熄灯”计划了。 到2008年为配合澳大利亚换到了3月29日,刚好满一年，“地球一小 时”成为了国际性的活动，旧金山也成为了活动的友好城市。这并 不是比赛，但是旧金山已经决定支持“地球一小时”活动,并全力以 赴把“熄灯”传播到世界各地。因为08年的“地球一小时”在星期六 举行，大多伦多地区许多中学在周五把一半的灯都关了一小时。虽 然一开始2008年“地球一小时”活动的官方口号是“看你能做什么 改变”，但最后电台广告标语改成了“城市黑了,心灵亮了”。
Earth Hour has also received free publicity from the Google corporation. From 12:00 a.m. on March 29，2008 until the end of Earth Hour, the Google homepage in the United States, Colombia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland and the UK was turned to a black background. Their tagline is, “We’ve turned the lights out. Now it’s your turn—Earth Hour.” However, Google stated that for 2009 they would not turn the page black again due to the confusion it caused many users. A common misconception is that having a black background on a web page reduces the power consumption of monitors; LCD monitors use a constant amount of power regardless of which colors are shown. This is not the case for Organic LED monitors, though they are not currently in popular use.
“地球一小时”得到了谷歌公司的免费宣传。从2008年3月29日中 午12点到当天活动结束,谷歌把美国、哥伦比亚、加拿大、丹麦、爱尔 兰和英国的网页都调成了黑色背景。页面上的口号是我们已熄灯。 现在该你了——地球一小时。”但谷歌表示,2009年他们不打算再变 黑色了，因为给很多用户造成了误解。一个常见的误解是:黑页面使 显示器耗电量减少。液晶显示器不管显示什么颜色都用额定的稳定 电力,但有机发光二极管可不是这样,虽然使用范围不广。
Earth Hour is a global event designed to highlight the threat from climate change.
“地球一小时”是一项全球范围的活动，旨在让人们意识到气 候变化的威胁。
From the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and London’s Houses of Parliament, lights were dimmed as part of a campaign to encourage people to cut energy use and curb greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.
作为号召人们节能减排努力的一部分，当晚,从悉尼歌剧院、海港大桥到巴黎的埃菲尔铁塔和 伦敦的英国国会大厦,熄灯行动在全球接力》
Organizers said the action showed millions of people wanted governments to work out a strong new UN deal to fight global warming by the end of 2009, even though the global economic crisis has raised worries about the costs.
活动主办方称，这一行动表明很多人希望到2009年年底政府能合作制定一个强有力的、应对 全球变暖的联合国新章程——尽管全球经济危机加剧了有关成本的担忧。
“We have been dreaming of a new climate deal for a long time，” Kim Carstensen, head of a global climate initiative at the conservation group WWF, said in a candle-lit bar in the German city of Bonn, which hosts UN climate talks between March 29 and April 8.
自然保护组织世界自然基金会(WWF)全球气候项目的负责人Kim Carstensen在德国波恩市 的一个用蜡烛照明的酒吧里接受采访。他说我们期盼出台应对气候变化的新协议巳经很久了。” 联合国气候变化峰会于3月29日至下月8日在德国波恩举行。
“Now we’re no longer so alone with our dream. We’re sharing it with all these people switching off their lights,” he said.
他说现在我们不再是一个人战斗。所有响应“地球一小时”活动的人和我们有着同一个梦想。”
The UN Climate Panel says greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet and will lead to more floods, droughts，heatwaves, rising sea levels and animal and plant extinctions.
联合国气候变化工作小组称，温室气体排放造成地球温度升高,并会导致洪涝、干旱、酷暑、海 平面升高以及动植物灭绝等一系列生态问题。
World emissions have risen by about 70 percent since the 1970s.
自上世纪70年代以来,全球温室气体排放量增长了约70%。
Australia first held Earth Hour in 2007 and it went global in 2008, attracting 50 million people, organizers say. WWF, which started the event, is hoping one billion people from nearly 90 countries will take part.
据活动主办方介绍，“地球一小时”于2007年率先在澳大利亚举行，2008年发展为一项全球性 的活动，当时共吸引了5千万人参加。该活动由世界自然基金会发起，目标是全球近卯个国家的10 亿人能参与“地球一小时”活动。